


ursa major

by goodnightpuckbunny



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Animal Instincts, Animal Traits, Cabin Fic, M/M, Sid/Others mentioned, Were-Creatures, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:15:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodnightpuckbunny/pseuds/goodnightpuckbunny
Summary: Sid woke up in the middle of the night. Something was outside.
Relationships: Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin
Comments: 7
Kudos: 69
Collections: Sid/Geno Spooky Fest 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dadvans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dadvans/gifts).



> I hope this fulfills your Halloween wishes! I've blended werebears and bigfoots (big...feet?) into this featured creature. There's something in the woods, and Sid is gonna fuck him.
> 
> Thank you to my beta for saving my ass :), and to T for cheerleading me for weeks. 
> 
> Additional warnings: There are a lot of references to Sid having sex with people who aren't Geno. Also, this fic definitely falls under the category of Monster-Fucking, though it's probably far lighter xeno than it could be. If that isn't your thing, you might want to find a different fic!
> 
> Enjoy!

Sid always packed more than he needed for a week at the cabin after the first trip, when he’d spent the whole time shivering through the nights in the mountains. The zipper to his duffle protested as he tried to cram it all inside—the thick pull-overs and bulky wool socks. He straddled the bag to make everything squish down.

“Are you sure you’re gonna be okay?” Nate asked, watching him and pretending to be helpful by methodically crunching through the perishables from Sid’s vegetable drawer. 

“It’ll be fine,” Sid grunted as he fought with the zipper. “I’ll probably just spend the whole time reading. Real old-guy stuff. You’d hate it.”

“How’s that different from anything you do here?” Nate asked through a vibrantly orange mouthful of carrot. Sid threw a sock at him.

They had spent a week together in the Rockies every summer for the past five years, mostly going for gentle hikes and hanging out by the campfire. They’d fooled around the past two times, and Sid had been looking forward to that too, but this year Nate was part of a wedding party instead. Sid could deal with a week alone with his own thoughts in the wilderness. His good lube and his second favourite dildo had been tucked into a pair of boxers and crammed into the bottom of the duffle. He was prepared for anything.

Finally the bag submitted to Sid’s will and closed the last inch. Sweat had gathered on the back of his neck and he was breathing hard. “There,” he said, and accepted Nate’s hand up from the floor. 

“What time do you have to be at the airport?”

Sid checked his watch and shrugged. “I’ll probably leave in half an hour.” 

“Dope,” Nate said, “I can take you.”

The post-season had been disappointing for Sid, but worse for Nate. The Avs had fought their way to the conference finals and couldn’t make it any further after Nate had bruised his scapula in game six. He’d spent all of June moping around Sid’s house on the lake playing video games on the couch, and now was moping around town every day doing PT with Andy. Sid was a little glad to get a break from it, honestly. If he really wanted to, he could fuck Nate in his own bed when he got back from his trip.

It was still only early afternoon by the time Sid arrived in Calgary. The weather was cloudless and warm, and the blue of the sky seemed to stretch on forever. Sid rented a bland silver SUV and drove to pick up the keys from the cabin’s owner. The guy gave him the same warnings as always, not to wander far from the cabin late at night and to make sure not to leave any food outside for animals to find. Sid thanked him, signed a few hockey cards for the guy’s niece, and drove towards the mountains.

He’d been listening to a podcast about do-it-yourself construction on the plane, and after checking the forecast on the radio, he went back to it. The show was pretty interesting. The hosts talked about a lot of different questions and answered listeners’ questions. This episode was about gazebos. Sid found himself wondering if he could build one. 

He stopped at the IGA in Banff and filled his trunk with groceries. Not very much of it was on his diet plan, but no one was around to tattle on him. He indulged in sliced deli meats, coffee cream, and enough desserts to sink a good-sized yacht. A head of butter lettuce and a tomato vine found their way into his bags, but they were mostly for sandwiches and not salads. It wasn’t quite dinner time yet, and Sid thought it was pretty sad to go to any of the nice restaurants alone. Instead he walked the few blocks to Cow’s Creamery. 

_Suck it_ , Sid texted to Nate with a picture of his cone. 

_wats the brown stuff? cow pie?_ Nate asked because he was a child who always got Bubble Gum at the store back home. Sid in his wisdom got a double scoop of Nanaimoo Bar and Cownadian Maple. 

_It’s the good shit_ , Sid replied. 

_lmaooo u didnt even get sprinkles on the cone loser_

Sid finished his cone as he meandered down the quaint, touristy streets back to the car and resisted a trip to The Fudgery only by virtue of his hands already being full. 

The cabin was only another forty minute drive from Banff. Sid got most of the way through another podcast episode before he turned it off to navigate from the hand-drawn map the owner had given him. The side road up the side of the mountain was gravel, and the one he turned onto after that was only packed dirt. The SUV bumped its way up, and Sid was grateful for the all-wheel drive. His ice cream sloshed around in his stomach. 

As he drove higher, the underbrush thickened. It all looked mostly the same leafy green, and for a few minutes Sid worried that he had the directions wrong and would have to make a u-turn on the steep, narrow road. Then the incline of the road flattened and Sid was pulling into the familiar parking space in front of the cabin. 

He parked and picked up his phone to text Nate again, but his phone kept flicking from one bar to none, so he put it in his pocket instead. 

It was cooler up here, and the sun had finally dipped below the peaks of the neighboring mountains. The sky still was blue above him, but the light had faded and left a distinct chill in its wake. Sid hauled his bags up the steps to the cabin, hoping that the furnace would warm the place up before he went to bed. 

There were lots of really nice cabins that Sid and Nate could afford to rent in the Rockies. Some of the places that had been built nearer to Banff or Jasper were like miniature hotels, with movie theatres and hot tubs and motorboats for the lakes. They rented this one instead, though, which could only boast two bedrooms and a little fire pit outside. It was charming and remote. Sometimes the power went out and they had to run the gas generator in the shed out back, and hot water was scarce.

A slight layer of dust coated the counter in the kitchen where Sid dropped the groceries. Someone must have been by to plug in the clunky old fridge, and it hummed away. Sid thumbed at the floral wallpaper that was peeling off the backsplash. He turned on the taps to test them. The pipes shook and groaned, but after a moment water sputtered out of the faucet. 

Once he put the food away, he went back to the car for his duffle, backpack, and coat. A big grey cloud floated overhead. The perspective made it look bigger than it probably was. The weather report said it wasn’t supposed to rain—or snow, god forbid. He had brought his good parka with him anyway, just in case. 

Sid still wasn’t hungry yet, so he took a walk around the property, making sure to keep an eye on the cabin as evening began to fall. The ground crunched satisfyingly beneath Sid’s feet and the air smelled like pine and earth, fresher than anywhere else. Not even the sounds of cars on the highway could reach him from here. Sid took a deep breath and then let it out slowly. Probably what he liked best about the cabin was that he didn’t have to be anything while he was there. He wasn’t under the pressure of being a hockey player, or a good son, or a Nova Scotian, or even Sid. He was just a person. The simplicity of it all made him truly unwind. 

Eventually he couldn’t really see where he was stepping anymore, so he turned and cut a straight path back to the cabin where the porch light shone through the bush, only stumbling twice over exposed roots. 

Inside, he put one of the chickens he’d bought into the oven. He had planned to eat them piece-by-piece out of the fridge throughout the week, but for now he could be civilized enough to eat off a plate. He wrapped two potatoes in foil with butter and salt, and then set the timer for an hour. 

Unless the fridge motor was running, the cabin was very quiet. Almost unnaturally so. Sid could hear his own breaths if he stood still. He hadn’t thought about that part of the solitude up here, and it unsettled him. Even at his lake house, there were always the calls of loons or the wind sweeping in off the ocean. The silence didn’t _scare_ him, but it was strange. Suddenly the whole world felt a lot smaller.

“Fuck it,” Sid said to himself. He didn’t have to prove to anyone that he could handle it.

There was an old radio-cassette player by the kitchen window, and some tapes stacked beside it. Sid sorted through them. He recognized the names, but they were all old country artists. Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot. He stuck the Dolly Parton one in the tape deck, hoping that it would at least be more upbeat. The cover art certainly looked the newest. Tomorrow, when the sun was up again, maybe he’d listen to the others. 

Sid busied himself with cleaning up a little while Dolly crooned. He flicked on all the lights on the main floor, and wiped dust from the table and chairs in the little dining room. The last renters had done the dishes, but had left them in the rack, so Sid rinsed them off and put them in the cupboards.

He felt a lot better by the time he’d finished the album and dinner was done. He had put in an ear of corn halfway through, and it had steamed nicely in its husk. It was a pretty basic meal, but it was satisfying on top of the airplane food and ice cream he’d had earlier. By the time he was done eating, he was already pretty tired. It was three hours later back home, and he wouldn’t let himself feel bad for going to bed early. 

It was nice not having to fight Nate for the best bedroom or the first shower. Sid steamed himself until the water ran cold and he was pink all over, all the grime of traveling washed down the drain. 

He put on a pair of socks before he climbed into bed—abhorrent when he was at home, but a necessity at the cabin—and then settled down with the book he’d been chugging through. It was a thickish tome about mobs in New York during the 70s. He’d watched a Netflix show about it, and lately he couldn’t get enough.

After two chapters, the words started to blur together, so Sid set the book onto the nightstand, flicked off the light, and sunk down into sleep.

* * *

Sid woke up in the middle of the night. It was so dark that he didn’t know if his eyes were even open, and it took him a few disorienting moments to remember that he was at the cabin, not his bedroom back home. He took some calming breaths, turned onto his side, and was about to go back to sleep when he heard the sound.

Something was outside.

Footsteps.

They were too slow and laborious to be a human’s, but not quite heavy enough to be an elk or a moose. He strained to hear it, heart pounding against his ribs. What the fuck was it?

The footsteps thumped close to the cabin. Whatever it was pacing around out there was right below Sid’s window. He didn’t hear any breathing or scuffling through the bush, just the footsteps. It could be a bear, maybe, but Sid didn’t know. 

Cold dread crept up his spine. He was so alone out here—worse than he thought he was before dinner, in the too-quiet cabin. The signal on his phone wasn’t good enough to call anyone. He could radio the rangers’ station, but what would he say? He thought there was _something out there_? There were lots of things in the mountains, and most of them normal. 

But what if this thing was a threat, and could get into the cabin somehow? There was a shotgun in the shed out back, but Sid would have to leave the cabin to get it, and he didn’t know how to use it anyway. There wasn’t anything he could really defend himself with. 

The footsteps stopped and Sid held his breath. 

Fuck.

 _Fuck_ , it was such a mistake to come up here by himself. He should have called one of the Halifax guys to come with him, or Andy, or his dad. Sid was going to die here because he didn’t know how to fight a bear.

Sid breathed out because he had to, but then the thing started moving again. Heavy, thumping steps. Surely the walls were shaking. A whimper escaped from Sid’s mouth. It was the same noise he made long ago, when he was only a child, afraid of the shadows of his clothes in the closet. 

For what must have been an hour or more, Sid lay in the pitch darkness while the creature outside circled the cabin. Sometimes it would stop, and Sid would try to count to a hundred. If he made it that far, he decided, the threat was gone and he could go back to sleep. The highest he counted was seventy-four. He tried to breathe normally, but every time the thing started walking again, he panicked and nearly choked in fear. His blankets were still tucked tightly into the bed, and pinned him there from his hips down.

Finally the footsteps began to fade as the thing walked away from the house. Sid counted to a hundred, and then breathed a shaky sigh of relief. He half expected he’d be awake until dawn, his muscles shaking and tense while he waited for something to jump out at him, claws and teeth first. Instead, he shut his eyes, and fell into an exhausted sleep. 

* * *

He blinked awake again hours later, groggy and stiff. The cabin was lit with the greyish-blue haze of morning. A bird was singing outside, and Sid felt pretty embarrassed when he remembered how scared he had been. Of course there were animals walking around outside the cabin at night. They couldn’t get _inside_ and even if they could, they wouldn’t somehow get upstairs to the bedroom. He was probably imagining the whole thing anyway—Sid had never been especially aware of his surroundings when his sleep was interrupted. 

He laughed at himself, and then got out of bed.

For breakfast he had a package of instant oatmeal with a nice big helping of fresh raspberries. He’d really skimped on his conditioning yesterday, so he was going to make up for it today. 

Andy had left him with a list of exercises that he could do without equipment—real old-school, gym class kind of stuff meant to torture him, specifically. He thought he’d get the cardio out of the way first while it wasn’t too bright out. The dirt and gravel roads that led up to the cabin were pitted and rough, and likely to make Sid twist an ankle, so he drove back down to the highway and then jogged half an hour back towards Banff. 

The run was gorgeous. The sun was starting to really come up, casting a warm golden glow over the peaks of the mountains. Trees towered along the side of the road with the morning light held in their boughs, and the air was crisp in his lungs. There weren’t many cars out yet, but a few empty logging trucks trundled past him.

He went as far as he was going to go, and then stopped for a two minute break. His legs were still good, so he pushed a harder on his return, the sun at his back now, its warmth pushing him forward.

All of the things he’d been feeling last night had vanished by the time he collapsed into the driver’s seat and gulped down some Gatorade. How silly to be afraid of what was out there in the woods. Everything here was beautiful and good.

Predictably, he ached by the time he parked at the cabin. He didn’t want to stretch on the side of the highway, but he was paying for it now. His thighs protested as he climbed the steps up to the front door and shook a little as he kicked off his shoes inside. A big part of him wanted to just lay on the hardwood floors or maybe collapse into bed to catch up on his lost sleep, but he ignored the urge and settled in to sit-ups, push-ups, and burpees. 

The last part of Andy’s workout for the day was a lot of stamina exercises—planks and wall-sits. They were almost as frustratingly boring as cardio, but the inverse where he stayed in place instead of running to nowhere and back. Sid longed for the weight bench, where he could physically see his progress as he loaded plates onto the bar. 

This _was_ Sid’s vacation, though, and without any access to ice time, Sid had the rest of the day off to do whatever he wanted. He stretched out a little more so he wouldn’t stiffen up later, and then went upstairs for another shower.

He debated jerking off under the hot spray, but thought he’d be kind to the old pipes in the cabin. Instead, he cut his shower short and went back to the bedroom.

Sid lay down on the bed with the lube from his bag. He might as well take his time, since he didn’t have anywhere to be. He drizzled the lube into his cupped palm, and then rubbed his hands together to get it runny and warm. 

There wasn’t internet at the cabin, so Sid couldn’t watch porn. He had a few well-worn fantasies, and he flicked through them as he slid one hand over his dick and the other behind his balls. 

He always liked to be overwhelmed, taking more than he thought he could handle. When he was getting off, he had to be careful thinking about it, or he’d go off too quick. He started off slow, glossing over things that got him hard—the way that people touched him and looked at him when they wanted him. 

He thought of Nate, the first time he’d asked Sid if he could blow him, sitting in the passenger seat of his car after an informal scrimmage. His hair had still been wet from his shower, long and curling at the nape of his neck. Nate had the same determined set to his eyes as when he thought he was going to beat Sid at hill sprints. “I’ll make it good for you,” he had promised, young and stupid. Sid had told him _no_ , just to see how much Nate would beg for it. 

And then even before that had been Daphnee, balanced on her knees while she measured his inseam, looking up through her eyelashes and asking him how tight he wanted it. Her stiletto nails had been dangerously close to his cock as they inched up the hem of his boxers. The black lace of her bra framed her cleavage in the deep vee of her shirt. Even now, Sid didn’t know how he hadn’t buckled to the floor when she had leaned in to read the measuring tape instead of taking it away.

Inevitably, he thought about hockey. He thought about being slammed against the glass by some tall, heavy body, and held there. The guy would grunt filthy things to him, how Sid would make a better bitch than a playmaker, how he ought to be renting out his mouth since he was clearly out there gagging for it. Sid could feel the guy’s dick pressed to his ass through all the layers between them. 

Sid imagined being on his back in the locker room, with the Penguins, or Team Canada, or his beer-leaguer friends back home. They’d tie his wrists together with stick tape, rub their soaked jocks in his face, pinch his nipples until they were sore and red. By the time they’d all stripped out of their gear, Sid would be so desperate for it. Someone would come over with lube. 

“Open yourself up for us, Croz,” he’d say, and make Sid fuck himself down on slicked fingers. “Show us how bad you want it. Come on, a captain should put in the work.”

Then there would be a cockhead pressed to his mouth and he’d part his lips around it, taking in the sour funk of sweat too. Sucking it down would be easy, sliding down his throat in one smooth thrust the way he never could manage in real life. The guy fingering his ass would pull out, tugging his rim open and pushing inside with his dick. Sid would moan, stuffed on both ends. 

“Shit, he takes it so easy,” another guy would say.

“Always does.”

“Better not come before we all get to try both of your holes, slut.” Sid would shake his head, but then a warm hand would wrap around his dick, dry and too tight and too fucking good. Then his cock would be held upright for someone’s wet mouth sliding down over it. 

“There you go, rookie. Show the captain a good time. Nice and slow or else he’s going to nut too quick.” Sid wanted to rock up into the heat of that mouth, but unseen hands pinned him down, making him take everything. His gut clenched in warning, so he skipped to the end of the fantasy. 

Sid was buzzed out of his mind imagining the faceless rookie, crawling on top of him and sliding his hole down over Sid’s cock—it took barely two pumps of Sid’s hand before he was coming, splattering halfway up his chest.

He lay there on the bed, mind back in the cabin and catching his breath. He had to ease his fingers out of his ass, which was definitely the worst part, but his wrist was cramping and it had to be done. Maybe tomorrow he’d use his dildo instead so he could leave it in for a little longer. 

* * *

Even though he’d gone for a nice long hike twenty kilometers down the highway on a waterfall trail, he managed to stay up later than the night before. He made a fire in the pit outside and cooked some Jiffy-Pop over top of it. Half of the kernels burned, so Sid reasoned that he could have a stack of cookies and a marshmallow-heavy hot chocolate, too. 

The mountain was peaceful. Calm. Nothing out there was going to harm him. 

A breeze had picked up and kept slamming the screen on the front door, and Sid kept jumping, but it was fine. The fire was toasty and the heat licked his cheeks until they felt like they were glowing.

He stayed until the logs had burned down to lumpy embers before he threw dirt on it to extinguish it, and then went back inside. There was a little tube TV in the living room with some movies on VHS for rainy days, but Sid was going to save them for a boredom emergency. Instead he changed into sweatpants and a shirt that didn’t smell like campfire. He settled back into bed with his book again.

Hours later, the same sound from the night before woke him up. His book had fallen open on his chest, some of the pages folded in half where it rested. Sid was annoyed at first that he’d conked out like some grandpa mid-sentence, but then he heard the footsteps outside again. 

Some part of him thought the light from the nightstand would have kept the shadowed mysteries of the mountain at bay. The sound was louder than his memory of it had been. Hearing those footsteps, Sid could imagine teeth and claws, something brutal. Or maybe some murderer was wandering the woods with a chainsaw and a taste for blood.

In trying to convince himself all day that there was no threat, Sid hadn’t bothered to protect himself. He could’ve brought a shovel or the cast-iron frying pan, or _anything_ that wasn’t a book or some blankets. 

No.

This was stupid.

There were animals on the mountain, and Sid couldn’t be afraid of them. They were a threat if Sid was caught alone, hiking off the trail, moving silently, surprising one of them or wandering upon a Grizzly mom with cubs. But Sid wasn’t doing any of that, and animals were more wary of humans than the other way around. 

He threw back the covers and made as much noise as he could, clomping down the stairs to the main floor. 

If it was a bear or a bull moose, Sid would close the door and lock it again, but anything less and he was going to shout into the night until the thing got scared and scampered off. 

Sid flung the door open wide, and the screen caught in the wind, crashing against the side of the cabin again. The night was a vacuum, sucking Sid’s breath out into the darkness and stealing some of his bravado. He slapped the inside wall for the switch and turned on the porch light. He peered around, blinking in the sudden gleam, leaning out as far as he dared.

Nothing was out there.

Certainly nothing as large as could have been plodding those heavy footsteps, but not even anything so small as a mouse or a moth. 

He looked left and right, straining to peer around the edge of the cabin. He could only see to the edge of the illuminated halo cast by the light above the door; the moon's glow was dimmed by a hazy cloud above the tall evergreen trees. 

“It’s not even bear season,” Sid muttered to himself. “No need to get freaked out.” He repeated the phrase a little louder, as if it would boost his confidence. Probably having that much sugar before bed was a bad thing. Yes, that explained it. He’d try to keep the snacking to before eight, or he was going to ruin his whole relaxing week with getting midnight jitters all the time. 

He pulled the screen door shut again, and then locked the wood door, tight. 

Nothing was out there.

But he flicked on the living room lamp, just in case.

* * *

The next day, after finishing with his morning workout, Sid put some effort into assuaging his fears. He drove back into Banff for lunch, and after the three-course-plus-bread at the Spaghetti Factory, he walked off the sedation of his carbs and hit up the camping store. 

“You don’t have any wolves or anything nearby, right?” He asked as the cashier scanned his bear spray and bear bell.

She shook her head. “Nah, they’re usually further west and north. And wolves wanna be left alone, anyways. Probably gonna run the other way before you even know it’s there.”

“Okay,” Sid nodded. He was pretty sure he hadn’t been hearing a wolf outside his window.

The cashier glanced at his purchases. “It’s a little late in mating season for bears to be much of a problem, but the park has a pamphlet if you want.”

“Yeah, that’d be great, thanks.”

“We stuck them over on the board by the door,” she gestured with a tilt of her head. “Do you want a bag for these?”

Sid paid, and then went to look at the bulletin board. There were lots of flyers stuck to it—walking tours, guitar lessons, hot yoga, a hiker gone missing—but stacked along the bottom edge were different guides to animals that lived nearby. Sid took one of each out of curiosity, but it was the bear one that he really needed. 

Back at the cabin, he started reading the pamphlet for advice. Sure, there was _nothing_ out there, but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared anyway. 

The pamphlet primarily told him that bears were rare, and if he saw one, to stay as far away as possible. Best practice was to travel in groups, stay on the trail, and make lots of noise to scare them away. Food might attract them, and Sid’s stomach twisted thinking of his campfire snacks from the night before. Supposedly if there _was_ a bear nearby, Sid would see tracks or poop, which he hadn’t. Maybe it would be good to do a check around. 

He read the side of the can of bear spray next. The label, like the pamphlet, told him to avoid any encounters with a bear. On the top of the can was a loop where he could hook his fingers and pull back the trigger with his thumb. He wasn’t supposed to spray it indoors, and had to make sure that he was upwind when he used it. That was easy enough to understand. 

He decided to keep the spray by the door, since he only seemed to be bothered at night. 

_Not_ that there was anything out there. 

Sid hooked his new yellow bear bell onto the side belt loop of his jeans, and went back outside to scout around. 

The weather was still pleasant, though cooler than yesterday after the windy night blew any stored-up summer heat away. Most of the forest floor around the cabin just looked like dirt and pine needles to Sid. There were definitely no pawprints underneath Sid’s bedroom window, or anywhere he’d heard sounds the night before. The tightness in his chest eased a little. It could be that the sounds were just branches hitting each other, or the mountain settling. Did mountains settle?

He couldn’t find any bear poop, or wolf poop. He did find what might have been a stray deer turd, or a very brown and roundish rock, but he elected to leave it where he saw it. 

The whole time, the bell had jangled on his hip, and he felt a bit goofy wearing it now. He sounded like some kind of off-season Santa, stumbling around in the woods looking for some spare shit. 

He snorted to himself, and decided that it was still early enough to drive down to a lake and catch some rays before dinner. 

* * *

Sid was ready, this time, eyes snapping open in the dark to the sound of something walking outside. His heart thumped and the hair on his arms stood on end, but he was prepared this time. 

None of his reading had advised him against looking for animal encounters at night. It was easy to assume without explicit instructions that it was a stupid idea. Perhaps Sid had been out of school for a long time, but he wasn’t that much of an idiot.

Still, he was never going to get back to sleep unless he went out to check. When he found that there really was nothing to be scared of, he could rest. He wrapped the big crocheted blanket from the end of the bed around his shoulders and stuffed his feet into his running shoes. Before he ventured out, he took the safety clip off his spray that read REMOVE AFTER PURCHASE, NO RETURNS and tried not to think of it as an omen. There had been holsters for sale at the store, but Sid figured that he’d just carry it. And anyway, he wasn’t going to have to use it. The spray was more of a security than a necessity. 

He turned on as many lights as he could downstairs, hoping they would shine out the windows and help him to see better. Sid opened the door. The wind had picked up again and was blowing fallen needles and leaves across the driveway. He couldn’t see anything else from there, so he walked outside and down the steps.

It felt much better to be moving, rather than lying frozen in bed. Sid always had more confidence when he was being proactive. 

He circled the cabin, shoving down the urge to tiptoe. Whatever was out there—or not—needed to hear him walking. The pamphlets said to talk or sing, but Sid figured that this was enough in the silence of night. 

There was nothing around the direct perimeter of the cabin, but Sid’s heartbeat still throbbed in his temples. He widened his search, making broader spirals around the property until he was in the trees. He kept going because the cabin was as bright as a lighthouse. The wind blew through the holes in the blanket, and Sid tugged it tighter around his shoulders with one hand, the other clenched around the spray can. 

A branch snapped behind him. Sid leapt in the air like someone had shot at his feet. 

His heart raced as he whirled around, looking for the source.

“Fuck off, bear,” Sid warned, but his voice trembled and his mouth was dry. 

He paced backward a few steps, inching away from where the branch had broken. He tried to swallow but his tongue stuck. 

For a moment, the air went still. Waiting for something.

Sid was on the ground before he even knew he was airborne, knocked into from behind. 

He hit the dirt, hard, unable to stop himself with his hands or knees when the blowing force sent him flying. His chest smacked down first and punched all the air from his chest, and his chin went next, making him bite down on his tongue. In the second it took for him to realize what had happened, that the thing in the woods had charged him and bowled him over, it was too late to scramble upwards. The body of the thing blanketed him, heavy as an anvil. 

The bear spray had slipped from his grip and rolled away into the bushes, but both of Sid’s arms were trapped beneath him anyways. He was pinned to the ground, helpless. Pain flared all over. His nose filled with thick musk and his mouth tasted of copper. On top of him, whatever it was grunted and pawed at him.

He didn’t think it was a bear. Or a wolf.

It had hands, or something like hands, that curved around Sid’s ribs and slid down his torso to his hips over the blanket. A bear would claw, but this was something more like a rough caress. The motions were too inelegant to be human. The creature pressed its face to the back of Sid’s neck and huffed out a hot, wet breath.

“Oh god,” Sid whimpered. 

One big hairy hand reached up and tugged the blanket down Sid’s back, tearing at it until it came loose down to his waist. Long nails, or claws, scratched the fabric of his shirt, but didn’t rip anything. Sid was able to get his left arm free in the movement, but it didn’t do him any good. He reached behind and only felt long, thick fur and what he thought must be the creature’s muscled flank. He clenched his fist in it and yanked, but nothing happened. It was like pulling on a shag carpet. 

The creature sniffed all down Sid’s back and up his neck into his hairline—behind Sid’s ears, though he hunched his shoulders to hide them. It shifted its legs, pressing its groin against Sid, and let out a groan that was half man and half beast. 

“What the fuck,” muttered Sid, a strange fever flaring in his stomach. He had to do something to get away, and he squirmed beneath the creature, toes kicking in the dirt. The creature didn’t seem bothered.

It licked Sid’s neck, rough and wet and thorough, like it was tasting all the sweat that had dewed up in Sid’s terror. The thing thrust its hips again, bolder this time, like it had learned the pleasure of the motion and wanted more. The tongue swept over Sid’s shoulders, and the creature let out a frustrated sound, finding only fabric there. It pawed at Sid’s shirt, and the collar tore away like paper once a claw punctured the cotton weave. 

The creature hummed, dragging its face across Sid’s back and ripped the shirt until it was shredded. It pushed beneath Sid’s free arm and licked there, too. The sensation made Sid buck against the creature, caught between laughing and crying as its tongue tickled him. His head wasn’t swimming anymore—it was sharp, tracking every time the thing moved its hips against him and laved over his skin. Every noise it made grew more pleased and less human. It was hot on top of him, but the wind made him shiver. The places where he had scraped the earth in his fall throbbed.

“Please,” Sid moaned, pushing up against the creature with what remained of his strength. He wasn’t certain what he was begging for. His body ached, but nothing the creature did felt _bad_. 

Its mouth moved back across Sid’s back and dragged up his spine, the heat of it and the opposite chill of the breeze making him shiver. He felt the creature open its mouth over his shoulder and nip with sharp teeth. Sid gasped, sensation zinging through him. His hand clenched on the creature’s flank again, and when it bit again, he trembled. 

The bite hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt, like the pinch of a needle when he got painkillers after a bad injury. Sid strained against the creature, hips tensing between the ground and its bulky mass, waiting for the soothing wave of numbness. It didn’t come. Instead, the creature’s jaws tightened, and its teeth broke skin. 

“Stop, _stop_ ,” Sid yelped, eyes going wide in the darkness. 

He didn’t know what he expected, but his plea worked. The creature _did_ stop, and then sprang off Sid’s body like it had been struck. 

Sid didn’t wait to see what the thing was doing. He scrambled to his feet and bolted as fast as he could back toward the cabin. By some miracle he didn’t trip, and then he was up the stairs and flinging the screen door open. It banged against the cabin wall again, but Sid just shut the other door behind himself and locked it.

He heaved for breath, wounded sounds falling from his mouth unbidden. 

The blanket dropped to his feet as he sagged back against the door. He was okay. 

Nothing too terrible had happened and he was fine. 

But...he’d wanted something to happen.

The more he thought about it, the more Sid was sure that the creature had been more of a man than an animal. Some of the grunts and noises it made sounded almost like words, although they certainly weren’t English, and almost definitely weren’t French, either. And the thing—the man, maybe—hadn’t really hurt him after knocking him over. 

Sid wasn’t sure exactly what it wanted, but he had a good guess. 

Sid’s cock had been half-hard since the creature had first started grinding against his ass, and all of the sudden he _needed_ to touch himself. He pulled the waistband of his sweatpants beneath his balls and stroked himself off, a delicious counterpoint to the stinging pain of his shoulder. He cried out as he came into his dirt-streaked hand, orgasm unspooling something that had been clenched inside him for days. 

He staggered back up the stairs for the bathroom. In the mirror, he saw that he was covered in all kinds of forest shit. The bite mark on his shoulder, when he swiped at it with a wet wad of toilet paper, was far more bruise than blood. All that remained from the creature’s nibbling was a short, shallow scratch. He had some kind of sticky sap nonsense in his hair, so he cranked on the hot water and hopped in the shower. 

Really, Sid thought as he scrubbed himself on autopilot, he should leave. He should leave right fucking now—hop in the car and pray he didn’t drive off the side of the mountain in the dark. Leave everything behind, and call the park rangers after he was safe in Cole Harbor. 

Something urged him to stay, though. If the creature was a man, then he needed Sid’s help. And if it wasn’t a person, well, then what happened probably made Sid some kind of monster-fucker and he could deal with that...never, really. He’d push that newfound knowledge deep inside himself and cover it up with golf statistics.

His sleep clothes were a lost cause, so he chucked them into the garbage and pulled on a sweater over a fresh pair of boxers. As he climbed back into bed, he heard the footsteps outside his window again. 

Sid fell asleep easily. He knew what was out there, and he wasn’t afraid.

* * *

He had most of a plan by the time he’d finished with breakfast. There was a red spot on his chin and a few matching marks on his elbows from how he’d hit the ground last night, and he was kind of sore, but not in a way he couldn’t deal with. There was a scab where he’d been bitten and he pushed away the temptation to pick it off. Games made him feel worse than being tackled to the ground by a large, unspecified being. He popped a regular Tylenol and went on with his business. 

To be kind to himself, he cut a few reps from Andy’s calisthenics routine when he got back to the cabin. Then after he rinsed off, he made a double-sized lunch and piled the sandwiches into his backpack with some Gatorade and two apples. 

Sid knew there was a stream about twenty or thirty minutes’ walk from the back of the cabin from exploring the grounds with Nate years ago. He had a suspicion about what or _who_ would be down there at some point during the day, because he was pretty sure that it was the only nearby water source. If he had to wait a long time, that was okay. He had his book with him, an extra jacket, and a flashlight in case it got dark.

He did use the bell on the way there because the trail wasn’t especially well-worn, and the bear spray had been lost to space and time. He found his way easily enough, picking through the trees. By the time he got to the stream he was hungry enough to eat a sandwich and a half, and one of the apples, but then he settled with his back against a tree and his spare jacket under his butt, and waited. 

It was about an hour later, or maybe almost two, when Sid was fully engrossed in the schemes of the New York mobs that it happened. The creature slipped through the brush, quiet enough that Sid would have missed it if he hadn’t caught the movement out of the corner of his eye.

By the light of day, it was both better and worse. Sid could really see what he was dealing with. The creature was hunched over with his knuckles almost touching the ground, but still walking on two legs. He had shaggy, tangled brown hair from head to toe. There were fuzzy round ears on the side of his head, and he had a snout. He shuffled down to the stream and knelt by the water’s edge. Then he cupped his hands and brought the water to his mouth.

Definitely not a bear.

Sid was at a loss for words. What do you say to the monster in the woods?

He cleared his throat. “Uh, hey.”

The creature startled, whipping his face around to Sid. His hair was thinner on top, Sid thought. His eyes were deep-set, but definitely human. 

Abruptly, he started walking back up the gentle slope of the stream’s bank. 

“No, wait,” Sid called out, trying to rise to his knees, but his legs were asleep. The creature was fucking _quick_. “Hey, hold on. I just want to help.”

He stopped in his tracks, but didn’t turn around. 

Sid licked his lips, casting around for the right thing to say. “Are you hungry? I’ve got extra food.”

The creature stood there for a while, seeming to think it over, and Sid heard his own breaths rattling in his ears as he tried to be patient. Finally the creature turned, very slowly, and walked cautiously over to Sid. He didn’t get too close and didn’t make eye contact again. It seemed like he was hanging his head, maybe recognizing Sid from the night before and feeling ashamed. 

Sid opened his bag and pulled out one of his sandwiches. He hoped the guy liked ham and cheese. He held it by the very tips of his fingers and offered it to the creature. He took it from Sid and then shuffled a few steps back before sitting down to eat. 

“I have more,” Sid said, and dug around for the rest of the food. He opened the Gatorade for the creature and waited until he’d gobbled down the first sandwich before passing off the rest of it. 

As the creature ate, he became more and more human. It was like a magic trick as the long curtains of hair dropped from his body and his posture straightened into that of a man. He was naked and pretty filthy. Dirt dusted his skin all over and the hair on top of his head was a mess. His face sported a patchy beard. He had a sort of hangdog look about him; his eyes were watering. 

Sid was relieved that his instinct had been correct. “I’m Sid,” he said. 

The man moved his mouth a few times, and swallowed. Sid wondered how long it had been since he’d spoken, or if he could speak at all. 

“Zhenya,” the man eventually replied, his voice scratchy and dry, deep as the earth. He looked up at Sid at last. “I get lost, I think.”

Sid smiled, “Well, now you’re found.”

It took a long time for Zhenya to get through his story, stopping frequently to find the right word or to drink more Gatorade. “I’m here in mountains since spring,” he said. “Look for bears, you know? I’m study for doctorate in zoology, mostly in Europe, but I want to see what Canada has. I came with my friends, but they just want to go to bars, eat food, find girls.” Zhenya looked at some spot over Sid’s shoulder when he said that, and Sid could have sworn he was blushing. “So, okay, I go hike and try to be quiet, learn about habitats. And I wander off the path. Then it gets dark,” his voice trailed away. 

Leaving the walkways was discouraged, but Sid didn’t blame Zhenya. By the light of day it seemed simple. If you left the trail, you just walked downhill until you got to the road. 

“First night, I make it okay. Cold, tired. Hungry. But then next day it snows and after that I don’t remember. It’s all kind of—” he waved his hand in front of his face, “—like fog. Just little pieces.” 

Sid nodded. 

“But no one looks for me, I guess.” Zhenya sighed. He looked so tired and thin. “What day is it?”

“July 19th,” Sid supplied. Then he remembered the bulletin board from the day before, and the missing poster with the picture of the man, smiling wide with his arm around the cropped-off shoulders of his buddies. “People did look for you, though. I saw a sign in Banff.”

Zhenya perked up, light coming back into his eyes. “You sure?” 

“Yes! I’ll take you back into town. They’ll be happy to see you again.” 

Tears sprung back into Zhenya’s eyes, but Sid thought they were happy tears this time. He muttered something in Russian, a short phrase, and kept repeating it as he smeared his tears across his face with the back of his hand. “Thank you, Sid,” Zhenya said as he cried. 

“Hey, of course. Let’s get you back to my cabin. Get you cleaned up, have something else to eat.” He stood up, and Zhenya did, too. “I’ll get you back by six, easy.” 

Zhenya followed him through the woods, though his footsteps were surer than Sid’s, and he was always close on Sid’s heels. 

“Wait,” he said after a while, “Sid.”

“Yeah?”

“Sidney Crosby. Hockey player.”

Sid felt his cheeks heat. He didn’t turn around to look at Zhenya. “Uh, yep. That’s me.” 

“ _Holy_ fucking shit,” Zhenya laughed. “No one at home believe me when I say.”

“I don’t think very much of your story is going to be believable, bud.” 

“Golden goal. Pittsburgh Penguins.”

“You a hockey fan?” 

“Sure, Russia team best,” Zhenya said, which was not even remotely true, but Sid let it slide. 

He got to know Zhenya as they walked. He was pretty funny, and in better spirits than Sid might have guessed someone who’d been lost in the woods for months might have felt. Zhenya had quickly taken to gently teasing Sid about everything they talked about, and Sid ignored the way his stomach swooped at that. He knew lots about hockey, but also lots about the flora of the mountain.

“Don’t eat.” Zhenya pointed to a patch of mushrooms that looked just normal and brownish to Sid. “You shit for days, and then you die.”

“I wasn’t gonna,” Sid said. 

“So you say, but then you get hungry and who knows?”

By the time they got to the cabin, the sky had turned grey and a drizzle was falling through the trees. Zhenya looked strange inside the front door, if only because he was buck-naked apart from the jacket Sid had lent to him. He had leaves in his hair. 

“There’s a shower upstairs,” offered Sid. “If you want to use it, I’ll make something else for you to eat.”

Zhenya knocked around in the bathroom for a bit, and Sid dug through his clothes to find something for Zhenya to wear. He was a few inches taller than Sid, and not nearly as broad. Whatever he’d been foraging on the mountain wasn’t enough to keep him fed. He was skinny and sleekly-muscled; probably zero body fat. His face had a gauntness that spoke of hunger. 

Sid pulled out his last pair of clean leggings because they were a little long and tight on him and would probably fit Zhenya better. None of his sweaters would cover Zhenya’s midriff, but he could tug the waistband of the leggings up. Sid left those things and an extra thermal layer with some socks in a folded pile outside the bathroom door, and went back downstairs. 

The second chicken went into the oven with more potatoes. Sid felt guilty for not having any real vegetables—Zhenya was probably suffering from some major vitamin deficiencies. He wasn’t really a master chef, either. Maybe when they got into Banff he could load the guy up with more snacks. 

When that was done, Sid sat down at the table and listened to the hot water pipe rattle. He hadn’t been thinking about it too hard, but it was odd—it defied all _logic_ —that the creature that had been stalking Sid’s midnight was also Zhenya.

What had happened to him? People got lost in the woods all the time, and none of them turned into monsters. It was far beyond Sid to figure it out, and Zhenya didn’t seem to know either, or at least he wasn’t sharing. 

A few raindrops pelted the window as the wind outside picked up. Sid shook his head and went to fiddle with the tape player. 

Sid heard Zhenya’s footsteps on the stairs ten minutes later. “I use your razor,” Zhenya said. “Hope it’s okay.”

“Yeah, no problem.” Sid turned around. He was right about the clothes not fitting Zhenya. The shoulders of the dark grey sweater hung a little loose, and he was swimming in the rest of it. Sid wasn’t really paying attention to that; Zhenya was _handsome_ under months of grime and hard living. His cheeks were a little pink and his hair looked fluffy and very touchable.

Zhenya sniffed the air. “You make chicken?”

“Uh huh,” Sid said dumbly. 

Zhenya grinned, and it was better in person than on the missing person poster. He walked nearer to the kitchen and inhaled. “Smells so good. I eat only fish and plants, I think.” 

Sid couldn’t help himself as his gaze dropped down Zhenya’s back. His round ass filled out the leggings just fine. He snapped his eyes away when Zhenya turned. 

“It’s not too hot in here, is it?” Sid asked. 

“No,” Zhenya replied, and from the amused twist of his mouth Sid thought he might have been caught checking out the goods. “Maybe I’m little bit cold.”

Sid had a vision of wrapping his arms around Zhenya and pulling him into Sid’s lap. _Christ_ , they’d just _met_. He could keep it in his pants for a few hours. He tugged at his collar. “Well I can turn the heat up.” The furnace was already running, and the oven was on, but Sid stood and went to go adjust the thermostat. 

They chatted while the chicken baked, and through dinner. Zhenya ate half of his meal with a fork and the rest with his hands, licking the chicken grease from his fingers. He talked and chewed at the same time. Sid found he didn’t really care, since he’d probably be the same way in similar circumstances, and he’d seen worse from his teammates. Zhenya went on about his research and his nearly-completed thesis, and how he was working on a better classification system for brown bear subspecies.

He patted his hip and frowned. “I want to show you picture, but don’t have my phone.”

“That’s okay,” Sid said. There wasn’t any reception out here anyway. “I’m probably not smart enough to get it—barely finished high school, eh?”

“Maybe,” Zhenya allowed, eyes narrowing. 

The rain was falling heavy on the roof, making a din against the shingles. “What about your family?”

Zhenya nodded, picking apart a chicken wing with his fingers. “Mama, Papa, my brother Denis. We’re from small town, but I get lucky and go to school in Moscow. Almost I’m play for Metallurg and be hockey player like you, but,” he gestured at his face, “too pretty, so they won’t take me.”

That startled a laugh from Sid. He was pretty charmed. “So humble, too.” 

“Don’t forget smart. Look me up in Zoologicheskii Journal. I write better than I speak.”

Zhenya glanced meaningfully at the box of chocolate chip cookies Sid had been keeping on the table. “Go ahead,” Sid said. 

“What about you?” Zhenya opened the box and took a cookie in each hand.

“Oh, jeez,” Sid demurred. “Kind of the same as you, but it’s always been hockey.” 

“So why you here?”

Sid told Zhenya about his annual trip with Nate amid off-season training. He refused to admit who had won the Cup this year, and said Zhenya could Google it later. 

Finally Zhenya seemed to be satisfied with his dinner. Sid pushed back from the table and took their plates into the kitchen. 

Outside the window above the sink, it was storming. The sky had twisted itself into a purplish tempest, but Sid could barely see for the water sheeting down the glass. “Shit,” he muttered. This could be bad. He’d been so distracted by talking to Zhenya that he hadn’t heard it begin to pour. He went to the front door and opened it, screen flying into the side of the cabin again, and right away the rain blew into his face. 

The ground was thoroughly soaked already, soft brown earth turned into black mud. Lightning flashed and a great thunderclap boomed, shaking the cabin like the cloud was sitting right on top of the roof. Sid swore, but the thunder swallowed the sound. He slammed the door. 

“Uh, bad news,” Sid called as he wiped the sleeve of his shirt over his face. The front of his hair was dripping, and water dappled the hardwood. “I don’t think we can get back to Banff just yet. It’s raining real bad.”

Zhenya popped his head in from the dining room. “You don’t have good car?”

Sid shook his head. “It’s the roads. They’re made of dirt and with rain like this, I think there could be a lot of mud. Maybe even flash floods.”

Zhenya’s eyebrows scrunched together. “What’s weather?”

Sid fiddled with the radio on the kitchen counter and got mostly static. There was supposed to be an emergency channel in the mountains for exactly this kind of situation. He didn’t know what the station number was, so he dialed slowly, hoping to pick up something. 

“There,” Zhenya said, having come around to lean over Sid’s shoulder. “Go back.”

The signal was shit because of the storm, and amid the crackling Sid could only pick out _rain_ and _few hours_. He could have figured that much out himself. 

“I think it’s best if we stay put. Sorry.”

Zhenya lifted his hand and thumbed a droplet of rain from Sid’s temple. “It’s okay,” he said.

Sid thought they could maybe play cards to pass the time, but neither of them knew the same games except for poker, which Sid had no skill in and knew he’d get frustrated losing hand after hand. There was the TV, as long as the power didn’t go out. 

“How about this?” Sid held up the case for _Slapshot_.

Zhenya peered at it. “Hockey movie? Don’t you get bored?”

“Hey, _Slapshot_ is a classic,” Sid defended. 

Zhenya gave him a look that said he disagreed. Well, whatever, Zhenya’s taste in national teams was already bad, so his opinion didn’t matter. Zhenya went through the pile himself, and pulled out a different tape. “This one,” he said, and handed it to Sid. 

“ _Miss Congeniality?_ ” Sid scrunched up his nose. It was one of Taylor’s favourites, but he’d never watched it. 

“Yes.” 

Well, Sid hadn’t been the one wandering around the wilderness for months, so he conceded. “I’m not sure if you’ll like it, but okay.”

“You don’t know what I like,” Zhenya sniffed. 

The loveseat in front of the TV wasn’t big enough for the two of them to really spread out comfortably. They started watching with their thighs grazing, and it only got worse as they slouched while the movie carried on. It wasn’t a bad show. Sid liked Sandra Bullock’s character, and the guy was kind of hot. There were some good jokes, and once in a while Sid turned his head to see if Zhenya was laughing at them, only to find that Zhenya was already looking at him. 

He tried to ignore it, but he could feel himself blush deeper every time.

The rain had slowed from a deluge to a steady drizzle by the time the movie was done. Sid went out the front door to check. From the porch light he could see the puddles filling the driveway. He hoped that Zhenya didn’t mind staying the night.

“It’s fine,” Zhenya shrugged as he pawed through the rest of the film collection. 

Sid winced. “You’re probably sick of being on this mountain by now.”

“I’m inside now. Dry,” Zhenya offered and then glanced at Sid. “Company is okay.”

They compromised on watching _Autson Powers_. Sid made more snacks, but they were both dozing before the credits rolled. They both staggered upstairs and Sid offered Zhenya the second bedroom. 

“Thanks,” Zhenya said as he smiled. He reached out and brushed his hand against Sid’s shoulder, which twinged in the memory of the night before. So much had changed, and that little ache reminded him that it was real, and he wasn’t dreaming it all. “For everything.”

“No problem—any time,” Sid said, and they both shuffled off to sleep.

* * *

The cabin was quiet when Sid woke up. Not even the wind or the rain made a sound, as if the mountain was holding its breath, for once. 

But this time, Sid was pinned to the bed.

Someone was clinging to him, pressing his thighs open and holding his wrists down. He blinked the fog from his eyes and picked out the shape of Zhenya on top of him.

“Zhenya?” Sid murmured, voice thickened with sleep. “What’s up, bud?”

Zhenya groaned in response—something that rumbled deep in his chest. Sid went from bleary to fully awake in an instant. 

“Are you okay?” Sid asked, tentative. Zhenya shifted as he growled again, and Sid felt the prickly rasp of fur against his bare chest. Surely he’d gone to bed with a shirt on—it was cold in the cabin, even with the heat on. There was something definitely wrong. 

Sid wanted to move, at least to reach for the light, but Zhenya’s hands held fast over his wrists. They didn’t feel right when Sid pulled at Zhenya’s grip. They were more like thick leather than skin. 

Zhenya was feverish where his body met Sid’s. Sweat beaded at the back of Sid’s neck and under his arms. Even his feet felt too warm where they were tangled under the blankets that had been pushed to the end of the bed. Zhenya was really tall, but his build wasn’t that bulky. Sid tested Zhenya’s weight, arching his back and tilting his head back in a stretch. 

Zhenya made a lighter sound, and bent his head, snuffling into Sid’s exposed neck. “ _Ah_ , watch it,” Sid warned, though he was mostly useless but to lie there and let Zhenya do his thing. His face felt strange as he pressed against Sid’s pulse. His cheeks were fuzzy and his nose and mouth were wet, and all of it felt too big—too wide and long—to be Zhenya’s face. 

Was Zhenya turning back into the creature?

“Hey, buddy,” Sid said, feeling his heart rise up in his throat. He fought to keep his voice level and calm. “Zhenya.”

Zhenya’s mouth opened and the horrible sharp edge of his teeth scraped Sid’s skin where he was already so tender. He bit back a whimper, but then Zhenya only used his tongue. It was like before, long and wet. His spit seemed thicker now, and it dripped down as Zhenya laved, pooling against Sid’s collarbone. Some of it spilled over and onto the bed beneath his shoulder. Zhenya’s breath puffed out of his mouth, and a shiver skittered down to Sid’s belly.

It felt so fucking _good_. 

Sid wanted to squirm, to bare himself more, but he kept carefully still. He had to keep his head. “Buddy,” he tried again, “can you talk to me?”

Zhenya made more noises—grunts and barks that didn’t sound like words at all, but that were syllabic enough to be communication. He lipped under Sid’s ear, and Sid’s cock started to swell in his boxers.

“That’s it, c’mon,” Sid encouraged.

“ _Ssss,_ ” Zhenya hissed. His hands started to loosen around Sid’s wrists. 

“There you go.”

Zhenya’s mouth was full of big teeth and a big tongue. He was still dripping spit everywhere, but he kept attempting to speak. “Sss’d.” 

Sid finally wriggled his right hand free, and it tingled as blood rushed back into his fingertips. He clenched it into a fist; nothing seemed injured. “You can do it, bud.” He stroked the back of Zhenya’s head, where his hair had grown long and wavy. From what he could tell, Zhenya’s fur covered his whole body, but it was growing softer now. Thinner. 

“Sid,” Zhenya said. “Sid, why?” 

“Wish you could tell me, honestly.” 

Zhenya lifted his head from Sid’s shoulder and cooler air spread over the wet patch. Hair stuck out from the side of his face. “Feel so—don’t know,” Zhenya muttered. He shifted and suddenly Sid could feel Zhenya’s hard cock, too, lined up against Sid’s.

“Whoa,” Sid blurted as Zhenya moaned. 

“ _Oh_ ,” Zhenya said. More heat rose from his body like a wave. “Sorry, have to—sorry.”

He released Sid’s left wrist and made a move to get off the bed. Sid reacted on impulse, clenching his thighs around Zhenya’s hips and pulling him back down by the shoulders. Zhenya was just startled enough to fall back on top of Sid. 

“Wait, it’s okay,” Sid said. “Let’s just—” God, was he really going to do this? Zhenya didn’t seem to have a good grip on himself. Sid wasn’t much better. “Maybe we don’t have to think about it so much.”

Zhenya was silent for a tense moment. “You sure?”

Sid nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m sure.” He finally got his feet free of the blankets and used his leverage to grind his hips up against Zhenya. Fuck, his cock was huge.

Zhenya found his mouth in the dark and kissed him. His face was wet but he kissed so gently, keeping his teeth and his tongue tucked away behind his lips. Sid wanted to taste him, though. He threaded his fingers through Zhenya’s hair with one hand, and used the other hand to cup his face. Sid pressed against the strange, boxy shape of Zhenya’s jaw, urging him to open up as Sid licked at the seam of his mouth. 

Sid rolled his hips up again, and Zhenya groaned. Finally he opened his mouth. His tongue was rough as it met Sid’s, strange and half-monstrous. He had the upper-hand, licking into Sid’s mouth. His saliva was still thick and it spilled over, getting Sid’s chin wet. He swallowed it down as he kissed Zhenya back with all that he had. 

Zhenya’s tongue was probably long enough that he really could stick it down the back of Sid’s throat, and that thought sent a shuddery pulse through him. 

As much as Sid’s hips kept their uneven rhythm, Zhenya held still. Sid could feel his hands clenching in the pillow. He kept kissing Sid until Sid’s lips went numb and he coughed as spit went down the wrong way.

“Sid,” Zhenya moaned, undeterred, and slid his mouth across Sid’s cheek. 

“What do you want?” Sid asked. “What do you need?”

Zhenya whined into Sid’s ear, pretty fucking loud. Sid winced. 

“I can suck you off,” he suggested. “Or we could do it just like this.” He cupped Zhenya’s hips and guided him to grind against Sid. His shorts were probably going to be a lost cause anyways. 

Zhenya’s teeth grazed the shell of Sid’s ear, and the sharp thrill of it made his cock twitch between their bodies. 

“Yeah?” Sid got a better grip, palming the muscle of Zhenya’s ass and squeezing. Fuck, yes. There was a light fuzz of fur back there, but it was still nice, like palming a giant peach. Sid dug his fingers into the cleft. 

Zhenya’s teeth snapped, a hairsbreadth from Sid’s neck, and he froze as a rumble rose from Zhenya’s chest. 

“Uh,” Sid said smartly. “Okay, I got it.” He cautiously lifted his hands away. 

“No,” Zhenya whined.

“No?”

“I want.” Zhenya seemed to pull the words from himself with herculean effort. “Feel so empty.”

“Oh. _Oh_ , okay, right.” Slowly, he put his hands back where they were. “You want me to fuck you.”

Zhenya made a desperate noise and nodded, burying his face back into Sid’s neck. “Please. Been _so long_.” 

Sid tucked his fingers back between Zhenya’s cheeks. He touched the tip of his middle finger to Zhenya’s hole and found it already slippery and soft. “ _Holy shit_ ,” Sid gasped as Zhenya grunted. “What the fuck?” He doubted that Zhenya had fingered himself open already. It was just the creature part of him, getting him slick enough to be fucked. Sid pressed his finger down, and it slid in easily. 

He pulled out enough to try his index finger, too, and found he could push both in together with the same greasy, buttery slide. 

“You’re really wet,” Sid marvelled. 

“What?” Zhenya croaked. “Don’t stop.”

“I’m not,” he promised. He wondered if he could get his cock in there, just like that.

It took some maneuvering, and Zhenya was not especially cooperative, but Sid managed to free his cock from his boxers without taking his fingers out of Zhenya’s ass. He hissed as he held it, already sensitive. Sid had worked on his stamina in the bedroom for years, but with Zhenya he wasn’t doing so hot. 

He eased Zhenya’s legs open, and then Zhenya hitched his own knees up until he was straddling Sid’s hips, his weight shifting over Sid’s stomach. His breath punched out of him with an _oof_. “Okay, okay. Just—lemme just—” Sid held his dick and pressed the head against Zhenya’s hole, spreading the rim open with his two fingers. _Yeah_. He was pretty sure it’d fit. Holy shit.

Sid opened his mouth to say something, but it was lost when Zhenya managed to arch his back and slam himself halfway down onto Sid’s cock. They both moaned. 

“Oh my god.” Zhenya was so fucking hot inside, snug and wet around Sid’s dick. “Wait, wait. I've got—” Sid tried, but Zhenya thrust again until their hips were flush. Pleasure shot through Sid like an electric shock, and he shouted. He squeezed Zhenya’s ass again without thinking, holding him in place in Sid’s lap. “Fuck, never mind.”

Zhenya nosed at Sid’s neck again. “Good,” he murmured. 

Sid hummed in agreement. He couldn’t help himself and flexed his hips against Zhenya’s ass. Zhenya bit the muscle of Sid’s shoulder over the mark from the night before, just lightly as if he was holding it in his mouth. Still, Sid could feel the danger of those teeth. His breath went shallow as he waited.

After a minute, Zhenya released him, and Sid pumped his hips out halfway and back in. When Zhenya didn’t bite him again, Sid wrapped his arms around Zhenya’s back where the fur had matted down with sweat. Then he started a steady rhythm, fucking into Zhenya shallowly. 

Zhenya panted and Sid kissed his hot, fuzzy cheek. “Easy,” Sid told him, even though he was pretty sure he was going to combust himself. He had a lot more leverage now with the way Zhenya curled over him, but the angle made it a workout. 

“ _You_ easy,” Zhenya snapped, more articulate than he’d been the whole time. “Give it to me harder.”

“Okay, just gimme a second.” 

Zhenya grunted, irritated, and pushed up on his hands so Sid’s cock slid in impossibly further. And then while Sid’s vision was still spinning with stars, he pulled almost all the way off and slammed back down. “Like that,” Zhenya ordered, and then did it again.

“ _Fuck_ , alr—” Sid tried to say, but Zhenya thrust down again, and Sid choked on his words. He wasn’t being pinned down anymore, though, so he took his golden opportunity and used his legs to flip Zhenya onto his back.

Dim silver moonlight spilled through the window, and Sid held himself still as he looked at Zhenya’s flushed skin. All the creature’s fur was gone, and only Zhenya’s pale body remained, shining with sweat. Sid thumbed over one of Zhenya’s puffy dark nipples in awe, and Zhenya arched below him. He repeated the motion and stroked down Zhenya’s sides, cursing in awe.

“Sid,” Zhenya complained, blinking slowly. His chest lifted and fell as he breathed, and he licked his lips. His eyes were dark.

“Here, I got you.” Sid lifted Zhenya’s leg onto his shoulder and got back into position. His cock sank back in just as easily as the first time, and he bent forward, relishing Zhenya’s groan as he bottomed out. 

He didn’t waste any time, and pounded into Zhenya’s ass. Zhenya cried out every time Sid’s hips slapped against him until Sid kissed him quieter, sucking every desperate sound Zhenya made into his mouth. 

Zhenya grasped his own cock, stroking in time with Sid’s thrusts until Sid knocked his hand away and took over. “Better?” He asked and Zhenya let out a gratifying moan. 

“Close. I’m close, Sid—”

Sid kissed him. “Already?”

Zhenya nodded, and squeezed his eyes shut. Sid sped his hand over Zhenya’s cock, twisting his wrist on the upstroke until Zhenya’s hole clenched around Sid. He spurted over Sid’s fist and whimpered, face screwed up in the shadows. 

Sid stilled himself as Zhenya shook through his orgasm. 

“Come inside,” Zhenya gasped when his muscles relaxed. He stroked his palms up Sid’s hips. Sid didn’t wait for more permission than that. He pumped into Zhenya until he came on a shout, and then collapsed onto Zhenya’s chest. 

He dozed for a while, eyes slipping shut.

“Ugh, you _heavy_ ,” Zhenya complained. 

“S’rry,” Sid slurred and rolled away from the wet spot he’d created. Everything was sticky and he felt kind of like an old band-aid as he peeled off. His underwear were soggy, trapped around his thighs, so he kicked them off all the way. 

Zhenya muttered something in Russian, half-disgusted and half-fond, Sid thought. He squirmed around, probably also away from the damp patch on the sheets. “Okay, sleep.” 

Sid mumbled in response, and slipped off. 

* * *

They woke up together in the morning. The bed was a fucking wreck, sheets wrinkled and stiff with come and sweat in places. The pillow was greyish with Zhenya’s spit. There was an _ungodly_ amount of fur. 

Despite all that, they traded blowjobs in the early light. Zhenya let Sid fuck his face and afterwards Sid sucked Zhenya’s balls until his thighs shook. They were really fucking gross afterwards, but the shower was too small to hold both of them. Sid happily let Zhenya have the first go and made breakfast for them to eat while the water warmed up again. 

“Nothing fancy,” Sid said as he poured water from the kettle into Zhenya’s oatmeal. “I’ve got lots of fruit, though, so help yourself.” Sid had put all of his raspberries and cherries into a bowl and sliced some apples in, too. He could pick up more in Banff after he dropped Zhenya off. 

“Looks good to me.”

Breakfast was a quiet affair, but every time Sid looked up and Zhenya was already looking at him, they smiled at each other. He wouldn’t keep Zhenya any longer, but it would be nice to spend the rest of Sid’s vacation together in the cabin, fucking and taking hikes and getting to know each other better. 

After they ate, Sid gathered their bowls into the sink. He’d deal with them later. “Just give me ten minutes to shower and get dressed, and we can go.” 

There weren’t many clean clothes left afterwards. Sid put on the same clothes from the day before with a different t-shirt, and went back downstairs.

Sid jerked his head towards the door. “Guess we’d better hit the road.”

“Hold on,” Zhenya said, laying his hand on Sid’s shoulder. Then he leaned down and kissed Sid. “Just in case.” 

Sid blinked and felt himself smile. “Oh, yeah, for sure.”

Zhenya teased Sid about his driving as he eased his way down the mountainside. He was full of shit, since he’d spent months some kind of were-bear living in the woods and had probably forgotten how to drive. Sid was being careful of the mud, which was still kind of sloppy. He wasn’t going to go through all the hard work of saving Zhenya’s ass and then fucking his brains out just to skid them engine-first into a tree. 

Once they got back to the highway, they could pick up the CBC easily enough, and then what passed for Canadiana radio programming filled the air. 

Zhenya was quiet for a bit, and then cleared his throat. “Sid,” he said, “I’m sorry.”

Sid raised his eyebrows in surprise. “For what?”

“You know, like, last night? Night before?”

“Oh,” Sid laughed, “don’t worry about it. I was really into it. Had a _great_ time, really.”

“No I mean,” Zhenya blushed and gestured at his own shoulder, “I’m bite you.” 

Sid reached up to touch the spot without thinking about it. He had been trying to leave it alone, but it still twinged. “Ah, that. Well, hey, that’s alright. Occupational hazard, eh? It’ll heal.”

Zhenya wrinkled his nose. “I guess.”

“What’s on your to-do list for when you get back?” Sid asked. 

Zhenya shrugged. “Probably check Instagram. Make sure everyone post about me. So sad, Zhenya get lost in Canada. He’s my best friend. Smartest biologist in all Russia.”

Sid laughed and glanced over to see Zhenya’s smile. “No, after call family, I’m probably going back to bed. Someone keep me up all night.”

“Uh, _you_ woke me up, buddy,” Sid knocked him in the arm, “so if anyone should be taking a rest day after this, it’s me.”

“Sure, old man. I see your grey hairs from here.”

They went on like that for the rest of the way into town. It was so easy to talk to Zhenya, as if they had been friends for a long time. Sid was sorry to let him go. 

The sun was high in the sky by the time they arrived, and Banff was bustling with lunchtime traffic. Sid parked on the street downtown, next to a tea shop. “Here,” he said, handing his phone over. It had full bars now. “Call whoever you need to.”

The first person Sid called spoke English, so Sid could hear most of the conversation. It was a woman on the other end, probably Zhenya’s contact in Banff. At first she didn’t seem to believe it, but then Zhenya managed to convince her that he really had managed to survive getting lost and was back now, tired and ready to book a flight back home. He told her where they were parked and she promised she’d be over right away.

“One more?” Zhenya asked, holding up the phone after he ended the call. 

“Of course,” said Sid. “Call whoever.” 

“It’s long-distance.”

Sid shrugged. “I can afford it.”

There was a long wait after Zhenya dialed before someone finally picked up. “Mama?” Zhenya said, and then Sid politely stopped listening in. 

Zhenya was still talking to his parents when a woman knocked lightly on the passenger-side window. Zhenya looked up and quickly ended his call, swiping the cuff of his sweater quickly across his damp eyes. He opened the door and swung out of the car. 

“Oh my fucking _christ!_ ” exclaimed the woman. “You lived! You’re alive!”

“I live!” Zhenya replied, matching her tone. His face was split by his grin, and he bent to hug her.

“I didn’t let the world’s future expert in ursine classification _die in the woods!_ ”

Sid got out, and joined them on the cobblestone sidewalk. Zhenya hugged his friend for a moment longer, and tourists wove around them. 

“Oh, hi,” the woman said as Zhenya let her go. Sid realized with a start that she was the cashier from the camping supply store who had sold him the bear spray. “I’m Cecily.” 

“This is _Sidney Crosby_ ,” said Zhenya before Sid could reply. “He save my life.”

“Well, thank you very much, Mr. Crosby.” 

“He’s big hockey player.”

Cecily smiled uncertainly. “Uh, cool. We definitely love our hockey in Canada, and I totally know who you are.” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Sid said. 

“I’d invite you for lunch,” Cecily offered with a glance to her watch, “but I’ve got to get back to the store.” 

“That’s okay,” Sid said, “just one sec.” He ducked back into the car. He found a crumpled receipt on the floor and a sharpie in the console. He scribbled out his phone number and folded it up. 

“What’s this?” Zhenya asked when Sid handed him the slip of paper. 

“Once you’re settled back into your life, give me a call.”

Zhenya nodded. “Yes, I will.”

“Good. Okay.” Sid wanted to kiss Zhenya again. He put his hands in his pockets. “I’ll see you again, maybe.” 

“Hope so,” Zhenya said. Then Zhenya huffed out a breath and wrapped Sid into an embrace. 

After that, they parted ways. Zhenya walked with Cecily back the way she had come. Sid sat in his car for a long time, hands at ten-and-two, before he managed to start the ignition. He stopped for cherries someone was selling out of the back of their truck, and then at the Shell station for gas on the way out of town. 

There was a carousel of postcards at the checkout. Sid took one and put it on the counter next to his gas station coffee. The postcard had a picture of a black bear against a vivid background of spring foliage. _Wish you were here_ , it read, in blue script. Maybe when the time was right, he could send it to Zhenya in Moscow and remind him of the strange nights they spent together. 

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is some BONUS Sid/Geno/Nate threesome fun the summer after Sid and Geno meet. It doesn't have any bearing (hah!) on the rest of the fic and is just an extra little PWP. I got carried away I guess, but I'm not sorry!

Nate and Zhenya were being suspicious. After Sid had done the rounds with his hand on the small of Zheny's back, and proudly introduced him to everyone there as _my friend, Dr. Malkin_ , there wasn’t much Sid could do to keep the two apart. Nate was tipsy on White Claw, and surely being an incorrigible flirt. Sid wasn’t exactly jealous, but he hadn’t flown Zhenya from the other side of the planet to come to his birthday party just so that _Nate_ could fuck him. 

This year wasn’t a milestone, so Sid could get away with just a little backyard barbecue with friends and family instead of renting out a bar. The downside was that now he had to play host. Sid usually enjoyed the challenge, but now every time he turned around from slinging more hotdogs on the grill or refilling the cooler with ice, Nate had his lips pressed to Zhenya’s ear, _giggling_ about something. 

Sid was pretty sure that Zhenya wasn’t going to trade him out for the younger, hotter model. For Valentine's, Zhenya had sent Sid a fossilized dick bone from a polar bear. And Nate—as he frequently liked to point out when Sid wanted to talk about something other than hockey or sex—didn’t speak nerd. Sid definitely had the competitive advantage. 

He kept an eye on the situation, but admittedly got distracted a few times. There was chocolate cheesecake that Andy brought that tasted real even though it was probably some soy-protein bullshit. Sid got involved in defending the net for some ball hockey on the deck, which turned into a trick-shot challenge. Some of his friends’ kids wanted to be picked up and tossed into the lake, which Sid obliged until his arms started to burn and he needed more cheesecake to compensate. And every time Sid walked into a new cluster of people, someone was pressing a drink into his hand and demanding that he endure being toasted, again.

The party didn’t go on forever, though. By the time the sun had set, almost everyone had made their excuses and gone home. 

Sid shut the dishwasher door with the second load when he heard Nate’s blandish telling-a-joke voice from the other room, and then Zhenya’s bewildered shout of laughter. It was probably the damn sturgeon story again, and Nate was surely delighted to have a new audience since everyone in the province had already heard it. Sid shook his head and went into the living room to find them sitting on the couch, half turned towards each other. Nate had Zhenya's giant sunglasses perched on the top of his head.

They both looked up at him, over their shoulders, matching grins and the pink of cheap alcohol splashed over their cheeks. There were a couple of crumpled cans on the coffee table. 

Well, Sid was only marginally more sober. 

“You gonna freeload on me and my guest of honor all night, bud?” Sid asked Nate. 

“I think you’re the guest of honor, _bud_ ,” Nate giggled. “It’s your birthday.” 

Sid leaned with his hands on the back of the couch. “Yeah, it’s my birthday. Time for you to scram. It’s past your bedtime.”

“Bro,” Nate moaned, tipping his head back, “It’s like—it’s past _your_ bedtime.” Sid retaliated by messing up Nate’s hair worse than it already was, knocking the sunglasses off his head so they clattered onto the couch. 

“Stop busting my balls, Nate.”

“So who’s better?” Zhenya interrupted their half-hearted tussling. 

“Me,” Sid answered without needing any clarification. It was always true. 

“No, between me and Mack,” Zhenya said, and oh great, Nate already had Zhenya using one of his stupid self-made nicknames. “Who’s better fuck?”

Sid’s mouth popped open and his hand stilled on Nate’s head. “Um, what?”

“He say you suck him on bike at gym last week, and first I’m not believe. But he has other stories,” Zhenya trails off and offers a demure little shrug. “So, who’s better, me or him?”

He’d only had in-person sex with Zhenya twice, and another time over Skype when Sid couldn’t sleep and Zhenya was bored marking papers. He and Nate, well, Sid had lost count because Nate was so easy for it and Sid was kind of slutty. It wasn’t in the hundreds, at least. “I don’t,” Sid started, and then picked the diplomatic answer. “You can’t compare. You’re both, uh,” he licked his lips, “good. Great team players.”

“See?” Said Nate. “Just like I said, he’s too nice to say.”

Zhenya nodded, considering. “Need more data points.”

Nate pulled at Sid’s hand away from his hair by the wrist and sucked Sid’s fingers into his mouth. He slid his tongue between the middle and ring fingers, like he always did when he wanted to start something but was going to be slightly more coy than asking outright. Zhenya kneeled up on the couch and turned Sid’s head towards him for a kiss. Sid melted into it and hummed happily. 

“Birthday sex, birthday sex,” Nate sang around Sid’s fingers. 

Sid pulled away from Zhenya. “Shut the fuck up,” he said, but was pulled back to Zhenya’s mouth again before he could get into the razzing at all. _That song’s older than you are_ , he’d wanted to say, but he quickly forgot about it. He slipped his free hand up Zhenya’s shirt, finding the soft padding of his side that hadn’t been there last summer, and squeezing.

After Nate got bored of licking Sid’s fingers, which didn’t take long, he said, “Lemme eat you out.” 

Zhenya moved his mouth down Sid’s jaw, teeth scraping lightly before he started sucking on Sid’s neck. 

“Want me to grab a quick shower first?” Sid asked, very carefully keeping his voice steady while Zhenya started working on what was sure to be an embarrassingly visible hickey. He put spit-slick hand on the back of Zhenya's head and held him closer.

“You know I don’t.” Nate tugged at the pocket of Sid’s jeans. “C’mon, wanna taste you.”

There would be plenty more room on Sid’s California king, but for whatever reason, they stayed on the couch. Nate came around to tug Sid’s pants down, chirping him for how his big ass was moments from bursting the seam. Sid didn’t bother with a comeback, too focused on getting Zhenya’s shirt off, but he groaned when Nate smacked him through his boxers. 

“He’s right,” Zhenya said as Sid finally pulled the collar over his head. “Ass so fat. It’s like...big target?”

Nate leaned his forehead against Sid’s back and laughed. “Yeah, I could hit that from the other side of the room.”

“Okay, time to get some new material,” Sid griped and rolled his eyes. 

“You love it,” Nate said. He grasped Sid’s ass and rolled him forward into the back of his couch, making his half-hard cock rub press against it. Sid arched his lower back and pushed his ass into Nate’s grip. “Fuck, that’s it, baby.”

Sid let Nate grind him into the couch for another few second—definitely _not_ because he liked it when Nate called him baby. “Are you gonna get to it, or what?” He asked. Zhenya plucked at the hem of Sid’s shirt, and helped him strip it off. 

“How about you get my tongue ready before you sit on my face,” Nate suggested. Sid turned around and grasped the back of Nate’s neck, holding him in place as Sid leaned up to kiss him, mouth open. Nate moaned and Sid made it messy, sucking Nate’s tongue until he looped his arms around Sid’s back. The ridge of his hard cock dug into Sid’s stomach as Nate mindlessly flexed his hips. When Sid wanted to be mean, he made Nate come in his pants before he got his face anywhere near Sid’s hole, and then called Nate desperate and needy until he got hard again. It was Sid’s birthday, though, and he didn’t want to do that much work. 

Nate’s eyes were glossy when Sid broke the kiss, lips red and shiny with spit. “Take your fucking clothes off,” he said, and Nate fumbled to comply. 

The couch was deep and long enough that Nate could lie down on his back. He pillowed his head on his arms and let his legs fall open. His cock flexed against his stomach. “Hop on,” said Nate, real pleased with himself. 

“In a minute,” Sid replied, and turned back to Zhenya, ignoring Nate’s subsequent whining. There was a furry diamond of dark fur in the center of his bare chest, and Sid brushed his fingers over it. “This new?”

Zhenya tilted his head side to side. “Kind of.” In his emails, he’d said he was getting better control of the creature. Maybe he wasn't all the way there yet, but Sid was enjoying learning about it with him. “Think it’s just for you.”

Sid grinned. “You gonna get all hairy for me? What if I like ‘em smooth?” 

“You don’t,” Zhenya said, pressing his parted lips quickly to Sid’s so he could feel the renewed sharpness of his teeth. “You like big, strong.” 

“Uh huh, and why’s that, do you think?” Sid trailed his fingers down to Zhenya’s waistband and started unbuttoning him. 

“Want to tame beast. Like challenge.”

“That’s so cheesy.” He slipped his hand into the fly of Zhenya’s pants. Sid could dish it out just as much as take it: “Come on then, Mister Science Man. Show me your biology.”

“ _Doctor_ Science Man,” Zhenya corrected. His breath hitched as Sid pulled his cock out, already wet at the tip. 

Sid stroked his dick, letting Zhenya loom over him and grope his chest. He growled a bit, hopefully too low for Nate to hear. “So what’s the game plan? I can kick Nate back to his house and it can be just the two of us.”

Zhenya dragged his hands over Sid’s pecs. “No, he stay. I’m here ‘til Tuesday. Lots of time.” And something in Sid’s stomach fluttered at the thought of staying in bed with Zhenya until then. Fuck his training schedule, for once.

“Hello? Can someone come do something about my blue balls here? I'm fucking _dying_.” Nate called. 

Sid let Zhenya go so he could finish taking his pants off. “Okay fine, jeez.” 

“Finally,” gasped Nate as Sid slipped off his underwear and maneuvered to straddle Nate’s head. He used his hands to part Sid’s ass cheeks so he could push his face there. The tip of Nate's nose bumped into him. Sid kept a lot of his weight on his knees and shins, but settled back to sit. The first gentle brush of Nate’s tongue made him gasp. 

“Good?” Zhenya asked as he pulled his pantlegs over his socks, boxers already trapped in the tangle of fabric. 

“So good,” Sid murmured. “Sorta surprised he didn’t offer to rim me earlier today, but I guess he had other plans.” 

“He talk about all day,” Zhenya came over and stroked Sid’s cheek, pressed his thumb to Sid’s lower lip, “how much you like it.” 

Sid blushed, and beneath him Nate pressed the flat of his tongue against Sid’s hole. “It’s normal.” 

Zhenya swung a leg over Nate’s waist and settled on top of him, too. The couch squeaked in complaint. “But you special.” 

“Ih’say’sh’bl,” Nate muffled into Sid’s ass. 

“Insatiable,” Zhenya repeated slowly, smirking. 

“Real rich coming from you, Nathan.” 

Nate responded by swirling his tongue with just the tip against Sid’s rim. Sid slapped his hand down onto Nate’s chest and pushed his ass back, grinding a little even though he knew it wouldn’t do him any good. The short hairs of Nate’s summer stubble scratched against him deliciously. 

“Can I suck your dick?” Asked Zhenya.

“Go for it,” Sid gasped. Nate kept licking at him, getting into a rhythm now, and it made Sid feel urgent. Like he wanted to get his cock inside someone tight and wet. Most of the time he’d just ride the feeling out and get lost in the sensation for a while—he’d never come before just from Nate frenching his asshole, as close as he got. This time was promising to be different, and he didn’t know how long he’d last. 

Zhenya scooted down Nate’s body until his head was level with Sid’s dick. He had to balance one leg on the floor because Nate’s lower half was too big for Zhenya’s long limbs to fit. He jacked Sid’s cock loosely first and Sid twitched up into his hand, shifting off Nate’s face. Nate’s arms shot up and hooked around Sid’s thighs, slamming him back down. 

“ _Fuck_.” Sid tipped his head back as he cried out. 

Zhenya’s mouth slid down Sid’s cock, sticky-wet with his thick, animal spit. Sid’s legs shook, but Nate’s arms held him fast and there was nowhere for him to go. He was stuck between Nate’s mouth, and Zhenya’s—a feedback loop designed just to torture him into an early orgasm. 

He made a lot of noise and was glad—not for the first time—of the privacy of the lake when he moaned _oh god_ again and again. Zhenya’s bigger creature teeth were dangerously close to his dick now and then and Sid was dizzy with whether he needed to flinch away or push deeper down Zhenya’s throat. Sid curled over Zhenya’s back, clawing at the sleek muscle there for a moment and then smoothing his palms flat. He felt like he was coming out of his skin and he had to hold on. Zhenya twisted his head as he bobbed up and down in short strokes, his mouth sloppy. He was smooth and practiced but every few sucks he would gag on purpose and the vibrations shook through Sid like electricity. Spit slid down over Sid’s balls and onto Nate, who kept tongueing Sid’s hole like it was his profession. 

“Not gonna last, boys,” Sid warned. The pressure was building up fast.

Zhenya pulled off to suckle at the crown of Sid’s cock, licking the slit. At the same time, Nate tugged his thighs forward for a big breath before diving back in. He held Sid tight and Sid was helpless. He just had to take it and let both of them push him off the cliff’s edge. 

He came when Zhenya sucked all the way down and kept him in his throat, swallowing and swallowing Sid’s come. It was like it was being yanked out of him and his abs clenched tight as he pulsed into Zhenya’s mouth. Nate softened his tongue, but didn’t stop licking until Sid was done. 

There was nowhere to go afterwards, other than to flop sideways onto the back of the couch to try and catch his breath. He felt Zhenya's long, fat tongue on the inside of his thigh, and then his gentle bite into Sid's still-twitching muscle. Nate and Zhenya moved beneath him, probably jerking each other off by the sounds of it. He was too out of it to watch, but he felt an extra little thrill when he heard the usual grunt of Nate coming and Zhenya swearing after him.

They were all panting like they’d just had a tough workout, Nate chest swelling beneath Sid’s legs with every gasp. 

“Yessir, good game,” Nate wheezed and Zhenya moaned. “Wanna go again? I’ll let you stick it in me this time.”

Sid nudged Nate's ribs with his knees and huffed a laugh. “Fuck off, MacKinnon.”


End file.
